The Pantages – One Hundred Years

This year marks the Centennial of the opening of Vancouver’s Pantages Theatre. One century ago, it stood for everything that was beautiful, new and exciting in theatre. Today, the Pantages remains all of that, – and it has also become a beacon of change and hope in the Downtown Eastside.

With the support of the City, the Pantages will be fully restored as the dazzler it once was and upgraded to modern technical standards. It has a superb acoustic, seats 650, and will offer new lobbies, a rehearsal studio, an enlarged pit, and every modern amenity. It will be restored with meticulous attention to its irreplaceable heritage value. And it will be managed in the public interest by the non-profit Pantages Theatre Arts Society on a long-term lease from its developer.

If you believe that live theatre will make a difference in the Downtown Eastside, please tell City Council. If you believe that Western Canada’s oldest theatre deserves to be saved and restored, please tell City Council. If your own company in music, dance, theatre, film, video, whatever your art may be, believes that you need and would use such a theatre, please tell City Council.

And if you see a chance to add a first class, mid-size facility to the performing arts in Vancouver, please tell City Council.

In the last two years, we have held more than 320 meetings in favour of the Pantages Project and toured more than 1400 people through it. You probably remember the day you first saw it. I do and I was astonished.

If we do this together, we will restore a theatre and renew a neighbourhood. If we do this well, the Pantages will last another hundred years.

We need your help. We need you to write a letter to The Mayor and Council, 453 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver V5Y 1V4, in support of the Pantages.